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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25135612">See It Through</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Could be read as either romantic or platonic - Freeform, spoilers through episode 98-ish</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:55:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,313</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25135612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jester has some questions for Caleb about illusions.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>See It Through</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I started this before they came back from hiatus - it takes place in between the negotiations succeeding and the dragon turtle fight, as the Mighty Nein enjoy a few days of downtime.<br/>Just putting it out there in the summary in addition to the tag: this conversation can be read as either platonic or romantic.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jester hesitates for a moment before she turns towards the stern of the boat where Caleb is standing, gazing out at the stars over the sea. She briefly considers sneaking up on him, but instead she makes her movements clear and a little louder than they have to be, and he turns to see her approaching in the lantern light.</p><p>“Jester,” he says, smiling a little, raising the glass of something amber-colored. Now that she’s here her stomach twists. Maybe she should have asked Veth after all. Or Beau - monks might get trained in this kind of thing, right? But now it’s too late and she’s standing next to Caleb.</p><p>“Caleb, so, I have a question about magic. Like, wizard magic I mean.” she says, keeping her tone a playful one.</p><p>“Oh?” he says. He turns towards her and begins to put his glass down before remembering he’s on the edge of a ship and it’s likely to fall over into the ocean, so instead he puts it to his mouth and takes a long drink. That’s good, Jester thinks, noting he’s standing straight but relaxed, not hunched as if over a book or stiff and detached like he was in Rexxentrum. She doesn’t want to bother him if he wants to be alone, and maybe if he’s in a good mood he won’t be thinking too hard about her question.</p><p>“Is there like, a way to tell that things are illusions?” she asks. “Like obviously I know that things can go through some of them, but not all of them, and my duplicate can do some things but that’s something different that the Traveler helps me do, and the magic Essek taught you isn’t really an illusion, or, you know.” Is she rambling? Caleb doesn’t look like he’s annoyed or bothered.</p><p>“That is all very true. For illusions...there are a couple of things but there are often complications, as there often are with the arcane.” Jester nods encouragingly, and he continues.<br/>
“It’s not really my area, other than some disguising - which you know too - but Fjord and Veth use them a lot.” Caleb shuts his eyes for a moment as if recalling information then opens them and gazes, as he often does, just over Jester’s shoulder. “For Fjord’s, you are right. Your hand will go through them. Ice will feel cold but it will not freeze, fire will feel hot but...will not burn you, and so on. Veth’s though - one of hers acts not just on your eyes, but on your mind.”</p><p>Jester nods again. “She used it when we went onto Avantika’s ship.”</p><p>“With that kind of spell, your hand will still go through but you will not realize it’s an illusion. It tricks you. Unless you use some other more powerful spells to ignore illusions.” Caleb’s expression changes in a way which Jester cannot quite decipher, though she has her guesses. She hadn’t meant to upset him, she just wanted the best answer from the person least likely to pry further.</p><p>“Yeah, I have that but it’s a pretty powerful spell and Beau said it also makes you see some magic fish around my Mama.” Caleb gives her a confused look that she ignores. “But there’s nothing you can see or hear that’s different?” she asks.</p><p>“Sometimes but there is not a, ah, universal tell. It’s not like stories about the fey - “ he almost looks her in the eye then and cuts himself off before resuming. “If you look and listen closely for a moment sometimes something will seem odd or wrong, but it’s not always the same thing. Your duplicate does not leave footprints, for example and neither would Fjord’s illusion. Or if you forget to make a shadow, it won’t appear, but most people in the midst of a battle do not look for shadows. This will even work for Veth’s mind trick, but you need to take the time and be very careful.” Caleb takes a good swig of the drink this time. “Does that help? I know the theory, but Veth or Beauregard might be better and teaching you what to look for. They are both much better at noticing this sort of thing than I.”</p><p>“Well...I guess. I mean, it’s very helpful, I just wanted there to be something easier. What were you saying about the fey?” Jester hopes the disappointment isn’t showing in her voice.</p><p>“Oh, old stories. That you can recognize a creature from the feywild by something in their eyes.” Caleb flicks the wrist of the hand holding his now nearly-empty drink and Frumpkin appears by Jester’s ankles and mews as he circles her. She crouches down and looks into Frumpkin’s eyes.</p><p>“Seems like a regular cat to me,” she says, and then straightens up. “I know he’s not, but when Frumpkin’s a cat or when the Traveler would come to me when I was little his eyes looked fine. I mean, people all have different eyes anyway, right? Some tieflings don’t have eyes like me, and goblins, or like, half orcs, have different eyes, and even you and Beau have eyes that are different looking from each other. And Yasha’s eyes are two different colors and I don’t think she’s a fey. The Traveler probably would have said something. Probably.”</p><p>Caleb’s smile has returned to its previous warmth. “I also think she is something different than that. Anyway, it was just stories, like I said. How to tell if a stranger on the road, if a traveler, you might even say, could be a fey who will take you away in the night. I don’t think they were true.” He finally drains his glass. “Why do you ask about illusions?”</p><p>Jester feels her heart plummet at that. She had thought Caleb wouldn’t have asked the way Veth - or now that she thinks about it, certainly Beau - would.</p><p>“Oh, I just want to know, for if like, it happens in battle, for things like The Inevitable End’s magic, or like, when Fjord made that illusion of the blue dragon in the swamp last week, or…” Jester is not used to lying to family. Hiding things, of course, and lying to people she doesn’t like, all the time, but she is less able to ignore the direct question. She tries to exit as gracefully as she can. “I just thought it might be good to know, and I’m going to get more juice, do you want any more of that drink? I can get some for you if you want to stay here.” Her voice sounds too fast and wobbly, like she’s lost control of it, and she wants to turn to go but she’s still standing here.</p><p>Jester feels Caleb tentatively take her hand, the way she’d taken his before in Xhorhas, in Rexxentrum. He is looking out at the ocean and the night sky again and she does the same, blinking hard and staring stubbornly at the brightest star she can find.<br/>
“That was a hard fight.” he says simply. And like Caleb had then, she only smiles weakly back.</p><p>“Maybe I should tell Fjord not to do that one,” she says after a moment. “I can give him some other ideas.”</p><p>She lets go and turns to leave, still swallowing hard but feeling a small sense of relief. There is a sudden burst of lively music, probably from Orly, and Jester can hear happy shouts from her friends.<br/>
“Jester?” Caleb calls back. She stops and turns to him for a moment. “That was a bad fight but I - we won’t leave you like that again.”<br/>
“Thanks, Caleb,” she says, and squares her shoulders. She’ll talk to Fjord tomorrow. For now, she puts a smile on her face that becomes gradually more real as she walks to the center of the boat where Beau is beginning to dance.</p>
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